- NY: Judge Blocks Rent-Setting Software Ban
Source: US News & World Report
“A federal judge in Manhattan blocked New York state from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law prohibiting landlords and real estate industry professionals from using algorithmic pricing tools to set, and potentially inflate, residential rents. US District Judge Valerie Caproni issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday in favor of RealPage, a software provider owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, which said the law violated its First Amendment free speech rights by restricting use of its software’s pricing recommendations. … Richardson, Texas-based RealPage sued two days after reaching a settlement with the US Department of Justice and agreeing to restrict its algorithmic software from using non-public data from competitors to generate price recommendations.” (09/30/26)
- DOJ files complaint against MN judges over immigration enforcement surge comments
Source: SFGate
“The Department of Justice filed a complaint Wednesday against federal judges in Minnesota over their remarks to the media related to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge. The complaint escalates the department’s battle with the federal judiciary, which has halted administration priorities, dismissed high-profile prosecutions and accused government lawyers in some cases of failing to comply with court orders. The department is demanding that the judges recuse themselves from all criminal or civil cases involving the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters, because of what he described as ‘obvious bias they have shown’ in recent remarks to The New York Times. At issue is a September article in which seven federal judges in Minnesota — nominated by Democrats and Republican presidents — spoke on the record about their experience dealing with a flood of cases during last winter’s immigration crackdown that led to thousands of arrests.” (09/30/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/justice-department-files-complaint-against-judges-22456559.php
- Romania: Political crisis deepens as parliament rejects PM nominee
Source: Politico
“Romania’s parliament rejected Siegfried Mureșan’s attempt to form a government Wednesday, deepening a crisis that began when the coalition collapsed in May. President Nicușor Dan, an independent moderate, proposed MEP Mureșan for the job — but lawmakers in Bucharest refused to back his candidacy in a crunch vote Wednesday. It is the second time parliament has formally voted down Dan’s nominee, and under Romania’s constitution that means a snap election is now a possibility. But Dan does not want to dissolve parliament for a national vote that would likely benefit the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, which is currently ahead in the polls. He wants the feuding political leaders to put aside their differences and make a deal to support a new coalition.” (09/30/26)
- Dems Rebuke Trump’s Ultra-Rich Treasury Chief Over $910,000 in Unpaid Medicare Taxes
Source: Common Dreams
“A group of Senate Democrats on Wednesday pushed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to pay back the nearly $1 million in Medicare payroll taxes that he reportedly owes from his years as a hedge fund manager. In a letter to Bessent, the senators pointed to a recent court ruling clarifying the scope of a self-employment tax loophole that is widely exploited by hedge fund managers and private equity executives. During his confirmation hearing last year, Bessent cited the then-pending litigation to justify his decision not to pay $910,000 in payroll taxes he potentially owes the Internal Revenue Service, and pledged to set up ‘a reserve fund to address any contingency related to this issue.'” (09/30/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/scott-bessent-payroll-taxes
- Core US inflation rose 3% on annual basis in August
Source: United Press International
“Core inflation, the key economic measure preferred by the Federal Reserve, rose by 3% in August on an annual basis, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday. The core inflation marker, which excludes volatile food and energy, rose by 0.2% for the 12 months ending in August. The overall personal consumption expenditures index marked a 3.4% annual increase and a 0.3% bump for the month. Wednesday’s report on annual inflation comes in cooler than expected. The Dow Jones consensus estimate forecasted a 3.7% increase in the personal consumption index for the year ending in August and a 0.3% increase for the month.” (09/30/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/09/30/core-inflation-increase-august-2026/6511790776647/
- MI5 warning: China funding UK research and sending it to Beijing’s spies
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“More than 100 academics linked to British institutions have unwittingly assisted China’s espionage operations against the UK via a front company working for its intelligence and security services, MI5 has warned. In the highly unusual public alert, the UK’s internal security service warned universities and academics that continuing ties with China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) could ultimately lead to criminal charges for aiding a foreign state. Security minister Dan Jarvis said MI5’s warning exposed attempts by Chinese intelligence agencies to use British academic research to undermine UK national security. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London said the accusation was ‘imaginary and purely fabricated’.” (09/30/26)
- Norway: Ministers, including 1993 Oslo Accords creators, grilled in parliament over Epstein ties
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Norway’s prime minister denied Wednesday an ‘unhealthy culture’ among the country’s diplomats, as current and former ministers addressed a hearing over ties between late US convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and senior Norwegian officials. … The Epstein files have shed light on ties between the US financier and Rod-Larsen and his diplomat wife Mona Juul, the architects of the 1993 Oslo Accords who are now under investigation in Norway—she for ‘aggravated corruption’ and he for ‘complicity in aggravated corruption’. The couple denies any wrongdoing. In total, 11 officials who have held the positions of foreign minister or development aid minister since 2005, will address the committee Wednesday and Thursday.” (09/30/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/norwegian-ministers-grilled-parliament-over-epstein-ties
- Fed watchdog finds no crimes, only mismanagement, in $2.4 billion building renovation
Source: SFGate
“The Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog said Wednesday that the central bank has broadly mismanaged an expansive building renovation project but did not find any criminal violations, as alleged by Trump administration prosecutors. A variety of missteps by the Fed’s Board of Governors and staff inflated the cost of the $2.4 billion renovation, the Fed’s inspector general said. The board did not secure a comprehensive cost estimate at the beginning of the project, nor did it nail down a maximum overall cost, a step that could have forced the building contractor to absorb the impact of inflation, the IG said in a 120-page report. Prices spiked after construction began in 2022. ‘Our review found that the Board has not effectively managed and executed its … contract and repeatedly deviated from its cost-management provisions,’ the report said. The building project became a high-profile flashpoint in the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the Fed into cutting its key interest rate.” (09/30/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/no-criminal-wrongdoing-in-federal-reserve-22456397.php
- Hegseth bars military academies from hiring civilians as tenured professors
Source: Washington Post
“The Defense Department on Tuesday announced plans to stop hiring civilians for tenured faculty positions at U.S. military service academies, a move that would make it easier to fire some professors in the future. In a memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the change was needed to ensure the academies are focused on their ‘warfighting mission’ of training military leaders.” (09/29/26)
- Hegseth expected to fire more top-ranking US military
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to announce the firings of 20% of admirals and generals across the armed forces, according to US media. The announcement is anticipated Wednesday at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, adding to an earlier round of personnel cuts in 2025. There are over 800 active-duty generals and admirals across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, according to the latest defence department tally. The last time Hegseth assembled military leaders at Quantico, in September 2025, he criticised the department as being ‘too woke’ and slammed its leaders for being out of shape, saying ‘fat generals and admirals’ is ‘a bad look’. Hegseth’s anticipated firings are the latest in a broader overhaul of the US military under his leadership, seeking to insert what he calls ‘a war fighter ethos’ into the defence department, including a rebrand, calling it the Department of War.” (09/30/26)
- Israel-bound flight diverted to Saudi Arabia after brawl between pilots
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“A commercial plane traveling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, briefly raising concerns about a possible hijacking and prompting Israel to scramble warplanes. Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane’s two pilots, and everyone on board was safe. The plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom.” (09/30/26)
- Trump hails US military exit from Iraq after its “12-year mission”
Source: SFGate
“The U.S. military announced Wednesday that it completed the withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group and prompting President Donald Trump to hail the conclusion of ‘a very expensive excursion into Hell’. The last U.S. troops left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington. Trump, in a social media post, described the withdrawal by a Sept. 30 deadline as ‘orderly’. Appearing soon after at a White House event celebrating Hispanics, he spoke at length about the withdrawal and said, ‘It’s been a long time with very bad decision making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place. It was a quagmire. For many, many years it lasted. But soon that part of history will be over.’ He said the shift was a victory for the U.S., Iraq and a sign of victory over the Islamic State group.” (09/30/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/as-the-last-us-troops-exit-iraq-kurdish-fears-22455639.php
- Venezuelan man shot and wounded by ICE gang member in Texas is charged with assaulting a gang member
Source: NBC News
“Federal prosecutors in Texas announced charges Tuesday against Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a Venezuelan delivery driver shot and seriously wounded by an ICE officer in Austin this month. The charges came a day before he was set to appear in court to challenge the legality of his immigration detention. Garcés Pérez, 28, was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting and impeding a federal officer, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Garcés Pérez was wounded by an ICE officer in the upper part of his back on Sept. 20 while he was in his car making DoorDash deliveries.” (09/29/26)
- UN Security Council extends Haiti gang’s mandate
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday extended by six months the mandate of an international security force in Haiti intended to fight powerful armed groups that have taken control of much of the country. Twelve nations voted to renew the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) and none voted against. Three nations, however, abstained: China, Russia and Pakistan, whose representatives cited concerns over insufficient funds, personnel and efficacy. The extension is intended to provide security ahead of Haiti’s first election in a decade in December. Armed groups continue to control large parts of the Caribbean nation despite successive international deployments, and the force has struggled to deploy enough troops to carry out its mandate.” (09/29/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/haiti-gang-suppression-force-extended-9.7363286
- SCOTUS lifts restrictions on third-country deportations
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“The US Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted restrictions on the deportations of immigrants to countries that are not their own, while agreeing to hear the issue on its merits in December. The conservative-dominated high court granted an emergency request by the Trump administration to suspend a lower court ruling that restricted, but did not outright ban, so-called ‘third-country removals.’ The lower court had said that people targeted with deportation must be given effective notice ahead of time about where they are being sent to allow them to raise concerns about potential persecution. The three liberal [sic] justices on the nine-member panel said they would not have granted the Trump administration’s request.” (09/29/26)
- Palestine: Squatters Attack Israeli Troops in West Bank
Source: Newser
“Israeli troops got a Palestinian family back into their two West Bank homes Monday night—but the return lasted only about 10 minutes, reports Reuters. At that point, more than 100 Israeli [squatters] arrived and attacked soldiers and the Palestinians, even setting fire to the homes in a chaotic scene. ‘Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their homes was not completed,’ the military said in a statement. Troops had the family go up to a roof when the [squatters] broke in but then evacuated them as the clashes intensified, reports the New York Times, citing witness accounts.” (09/29/26)
- Smith tells senators he won’t ‘be silenced’ by Trump’s threats of prosecution
Source: WTOP News
“Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against President Donald Trump, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he ‘will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution’ from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before. Smith also told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he stands behind the criminal cases he brought against Trump, a Republican, and that he and his team acted without regard to politics. … Republicans sought to cast the prosecution as a political fishing expedition, accusing Smith of bending ordinary procedures in an overzealous pursuit of the president.” (09/29/26)
- NYC: Judge orders Mamdani to redo second-home tax rollout
Source: Fox News
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday quickly appealed a judge’s decision to cancel previously mailed notices for his second-home tax, triggering an automatic stay of the ruling. ‘The auto stay allows the city to continue, as we have been, with the implementation of the pied-a-terre surcharge and puts the lower court’s order on pause,’ a city official said. Just hours earlier, Judge Wayne Ozzi found that the city failed to follow required procedures before mailing the notices, which he described as ‘arbitrary and capricious, affected by errors of law, and in violation of the recipients’ due process rights,’ according to the ruling. Despite the ruling, Ozzi noted that the policy itself could still survive. He said the city can still apply the tax by removing the current list of taxed properties from its website and posting a corrected list after following the proper procedures.” (09/29/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nyc-judge-orders-mamdani-redo-second-home-tax-rollout
- CDC reports two measles deaths in US as cases hit 35-year high
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed two measles-related deaths from the 3,659 confirmed cases this year, the highest number of cases in 35 years. The CDC did not specify on Tuesday in which states the deaths occurred. However, Pennsylvania has been hardest hit by the outbreak with more than 900 reported cases. The preventable disease was declared eliminated in the US in 2000 but has made an aggressive comeback in recent years, which some have linked to a rise in vaccine scepticism.” (09/29/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/29/cdc-reports-two-measles-deaths-us-as-cases-hit-35-year-high
- Moody’s: India’s aging population set to reshape economy as fertility falls below replacement
Source: mint [India]
“India is likely to have a much older population later this century as its age structure begins to shift after fertility fell below the replacement level, Moody’s Ratings said in a report on Tuesday. Although India’s population remains relatively young, the country’s fertility rate has fallen below replacement, and its age structure is beginning to change, setting the stage for a much older population in the coming decades, Moody’s said. Countries experiencing the steepest fertility declines are likely to age most rapidly, it added.” (09/29/26)
- The Horrible Pete Hegseth
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“I took it for granted that he would do whatever Trump wanted, no matter how outrageous or illegal it might be, and he has proved to be even more horrible than I expected.” (09/30/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-horrible-pete-hegseth
- The Ballot Box as a Check on War
Source: Common Dreams
by Timothy Hopper“On September 24, the Senate rejected a resolution directing the president to remove US forces from hostilities with Iran. In American politics, the end of military operations does not necessarily end a war’s political consequences. Some wars enter a decisive phase when the public judges their costs. Missiles may fall silent, troops return to their bases, and governments announce agreements or claim victory, but questions remain: Who decided? Why was war necessary? How transparent was the decision? What did it cost taxpayers, soldiers, allies, and America’s credibility? Who should answer for it? Elections do more than transfer power between parties. They are among the few institutional channels through which Americans can translate dissatisfaction with foreign policy into political action. A vote need not express partisan loyalty or simple opposition to a president. It can demand answers for decisions whose consequences outlast any administration.” (09/30/26)
- Lower Taxes Lead to Knowledge Gains
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Nima Sanandaji & Klas Tikkanen“Since 2017, the geography of knowledge-intensive employment in Europe has been closely studied by examining the share of adults in 34 European countries and 244 regions who are employed in highly knowledge-intensive technology jobs—in other terms, roles that rely heavily on expertise, technology, and research as well as advanced information processing and cognitive skills. The results are very clear: countries in Europe with lower taxes have a higher concentration of knowledge-intensive jobs and are also where new knowledge-intensive jobs are growing.” (09/30/26)
https://fee.org/articles/lower-taxes-lead-to-knowledge-gains/
- Meaning and the crisis of liberalism
Source: hypertext
by Ryan Avent“Rebuilding the liberal consensus requires us to go beyond the minimalist version of it.” (09/30/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/meaning-and-the-crisis-of-liberalism
- Trump’s Populist Image Is Dead
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen“Trump had the most zealous followers of anyone this side of Osama bin Laden, and in his first term, he did a certain amount of fan service. He cracked down on illegal (and legal) immigration, made gestures toward building a wall on the southern border, cut taxes, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris Climate Accords, and insulted and belittled everyone from Hillary Clinton to John Lewis. Was there profiteering as well? Sure. … But it was all pretty low-key compared with the sequel. In his second term, Trump has been a caricature of a plutocrat, gilding the Oval Office, grinding the White House East Wing into dust to build his garish ballroom, plastering his name on everything in his line of sight, issuing commemorative coins with his face on them, and vacuuming up wealth for himself and his family on a scale that has never been seen in American history.” (09/30/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-populist-image-is-dead-corrupt-greed-abuse-midterms
- The Ritalin Puzzle
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“Looking into the controversy over Ritalin and related drugs for controlling ADHD I was struck by a puzzle. Currently, about twelve percent of children are diagnosed with ADHD; those so diagnosed are widely claimed to be unable to function in a classroom without medication. The number is twice what it was thirty years ago.” (09/30/26)
- Putting a million neets into work
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“Britain has a million young people doing nothing. Not studying, not training, not working. The ONS counted 981,000 NEETs in April to June 2026, and 393,000 of them were unemployed and looking for work. The number has been climbing for four years. Only one EU country, Romania, now has a higher NEET rate than ours. This is not just a statistic. It is a slow waste of talent, energy and ambition. … We might limit job-seeking benefits for under-25s to six months. After that, the benefit stops and a job starts. Every young claimant still out of work at six months would be offered a fixed-term public service job. … Those who refuse the place would not receive benefit. The deal is simple. Society will not leave you idle, and you will not be paid to stay idle.” (09/30/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/putting-a-million-neets-into-work
- Gun Control Advocates Really Don’t Think There Is Any Age at Which People Should Own Guns
Source: Town Hall
by John R Lott, Jr.“Gun control advocates have condemned the Justice Department’s decision to stop criminally enforcing the nearly 60-year-old 1968 federal ban on licensed dealers selling handguns to law-abiding 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds. They say it will cause the loss of life. ‘That’s because young Americans are disproportionately likely to commit gun violence,’ claims the GIFFORDS Center’s Executive Director Emma Brown. It is true that young people commit crime at relatively high rates, but they are also more likely to be victims of crime. A 20-year-old woman facing a stalker needs protection as much as a 21-year-old woman does. Young adults also face substantial risks of becoming victims: Reported rapes are 32 percent more likely for ages 18 to 20 than for people ages 21 to 23, and the younger group’s homicide rate is 7 percent higher.” (09/30/26)
- Filing Taxes Will Cost Americans $544 Billion This Year
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“The process of paying taxes manages to add insult to injury by making it burdensome to comply as you cough up the money the government steals from you. The time lost keeping up on tax rules, filing paperwork, and calculating our own mugging is stolen from the rewarding areas of life, and the costs are diverted from productive activities. How much do we lose in satisfying government’s demands? A new report answers that question in painful detail, just in time for the October 15 extended filing deadline.” (09/30/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/30/filing-taxes-will-cost-americans-544-billion-this-year/
- How to Think About Impeachment No. 3—and the One After That
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“A Democratic majority in the House will have to do the bulk of the political work on a third Trump impeachment irrespective of the outcome in the Senate: In case of a small Democratic majority in the Senate or continued Republican control, Democrats will have reasons—substantive reasons and reasons having to do with political calculation—to give the case against Trump and his allies a full, extensive airing in the House rather than hastily sending articles of impeachment over to the Senate, because, absent some currently implausible scenario, a small Democratic majority in the upper chamber would produce the same result as a small Republican majority: The articles would fail to produce a conviction, which requires a two-thirds majority. That is, unless some Republican senators can be shamed into acting like the thing they always boast about being: patriots.” (09/30/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-impeachment-rubio-hegseth-bessent-democrats-midterms/
- Goodnight Baghdad: US troops leave Iraq after 23 years
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Dan Grazier“The Iraq War was already four-years-old when I walked down the ramp of a C-17 at Al Taqaddum Air Base in April 2007. The fact that I am writing these words is proof that I survived that deployment and a subsequent one to Afghanistan in 2013. In the years since, I transitioned back into civilian life, established a new career, and saw my kids grow up and escape the nest. … Had anyone told me while I was dodging IEDs in the summer of 2007 that I would be asked to write a column at the age of 48 about the last American troops leaving Iraq today, I would have rightly questioned what the United States was doing there. I believed at the time that we were fighting terrorists and helping to create a free Iraq. Two decades later, I have no idea why we were really fighting there.” (09/30/26)
- Disturbing Pictures of Neglect in ICE Mortality Reviews
Source: The American Prospect
by Whitney Curry Wimbish“Carlos Josué Marchena Marchena was just 36 years old when he died in the Winn Correctional Center immigration prison in Winnfield, Louisiana, earlier this month. He had repeatedly told his family and another detainee that he wasn’t receiving the insulin shots he needed to manage his Type 1 diabetes; he was missing meals and lacked enough water, too. Another immigrant inside the camp reportedly said that the day before Marchena died, he had been in pain, vomiting, and ‘pale purple and wet with sweat’. Marchena is the third person to die in Winn Correctional Center this year and among the at least 65 people who have died in immigration detention since Donald Trump retook the White House, according to a nonscientific tally the Prospect maintains based on death notices, news coverage, and federal databases for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, among other sources.” (09/30/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/09/30/ice-neglect-immigration-deportation-mortality-reviews/
- Public Sector Unions Undermine Accountability
Soure: The Daily Economy
by Jason Sorens“Research on schools, policing, and government spending is clear: public sector bargaining forces taxpayers to finance the erosion of their rights.” [editor’s note: The problem is the “public sector” part, not the “unions” part. Stop financing stuff through taxes and let the market handle bargaining, “collective” or otherwise – TLK] (09/30/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/public-sector-unions-undermine-accountability/
- The Mirage of Statecraft: America’s Blind Drift in West Asia
Source: Antiwar.com
by M Reza Behnam“For decades, the architecture of West Asia has rested on a comforting fiction: that Pax Americana could indefinitely manage the region through the policy of offshore balancing, security guarantees to autocrats and the supreme might of the U.S. military. That order is gone. Not bruised, not bending, but wholly vaporized. Washington’s illusion that it could facilely pivot away from the region while maintaining a stranglehold on its security dynamics has collided with the hard reality of enduring quagmires. Current historical events have swept away the geopolitical framework of the past that relied on predictable diplomatic patterns, managed proxy clashes and the arrogant belief that normalization pacts could be achieved while entirely ignoring public sentiment.” (09/30/26)
- Mamdani’s new plan to “fight antisemitism” is pure fakery
Source: New York Post
by staff“Just what is the antisemitism that Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to oppose? He won’t say. And Mamdani’s allies have Sen. Chuck Schumer so cowed that he no longer dares spell out the fact that obsessive ‘anti-Zionism’ plainly is a form of Jew-hate. The mayor on Tuesday declined to do a live press conference to announce his new ‘anti-antisemitism’ drive, instead dropping a two-minute video that avoided any awkward questions about exactly what he’s against, let along queries about why the plan’s so pathetic. He’ll fund more ‘hate-crime prevention’ and help pay for security upgrades at religious centers (not just the Jewish ones that most need it, of course). But God forbid our Israel-hating mayor mention that ‘anti-Zionism’ is central to the recent waves of violent antisemitism he claims he wants stopped.” (09/30/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/09/30/opinion/mamdanis-new-plan-to-fight-antisemitism-is-pure-fakery/
- First Them, Then Us: America’s Shift from Police State to Prison State
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead“America, you got fooled. Again. For starters, the war on illegal immigration was never just about illegal immigration. If you fell for that, chances are you’re still falling for the government’s oldest trick: manufacture a crisis, identify an enemy, frighten the public, declare an emergency, and then use the resulting fear to justify another expansion of government power. Terrorism. Crime. Drugs. National security. Illegal immigration. Different threats. Same playbook.” (09/29/26)
- Fifth Columns in America, Part One
Source: American Greatness
by Stu Cvrk“Merriam-Webster defines a ‘fifth column’ in its original, literal sense: ‘a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders’. That is a high bar … and almost nothing discussed in American politics today clears it. The term has widened in recent years. Political scientists now treat fifth-column politics as rhetoric, policy, or mobilization against domestic ‘enemies within’. Scott Radnitz of the University of Washington splits it into two types: subversive claims aimed at vulnerable minorities or immigrants and collusive claims aimed at elites said to serve a foreign power. Neither needs a hidden army or single chain of command. Both describe a domestic network—whether organized or not—whose activities, funding, or ideology line up with a foreign adversary, or that treats the U.S. constitutional order as illegitimate and works to replace it from the inside.” (09/30/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/09/30/fifth-columns-in-america-part-one/
- GOP candidates are rushing to rebrand before November’s midterms
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jonah Goldberg“At the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s recent retreat at Sea Island, Ga., NRSC pollster Erik Iverson insisted that every incumbent GOP senator will be reelected and that Republicans are even on track to pick up a Senate seat. There is no public polling that agrees with this rosy GOP scenario. Ah yes, but the polls are ‘fake’ as Trump likes to say, even though, at the end of August he claimed in an interview that if the election were held today, he would win by ’25 points.’ Meanwhile, Trump’s disapproval ratings in the polls are at record or near record lows. If they were an EKG, doctors would tell the patient to get his affairs in order. But let’s ignore the polls. Given the difficulties with polling and its occasionally spotty record in recent years, skepticism is defensible.” (09/29/26)
- Don’t vote for crazy over normal in the midterms
Source: Fox News Forum
by Liz Peek“Let me get this straight: Because President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran for the purpose of denying the mullahs access to a nuclear weapon (a red line that every U.S. politician has embraced in the past) and, because Americans are paying more for gasoline and diesel than they were a year ago, voters are now set to elect anti-U.S., anti-Israel candidates who want to destroy the economic system and institutions that have made the United States the strongest, most prosperous nation on earth. Did I get that wrong? Has Americans’ hatred of Donald Trump made them simple? Do they really think that Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for a vacant Senate seat in Michigan, loves our country and aligns with our values?” (09/29/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-americans-dont-vote-crazy-over-normal-midterms
- Trump Must Own the Cause of High Fuel Prices
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland“In an attempt before American mid-term elections to shift blame for high U.S. fuel prices from his unnecessary and now counterproductive attack on Iran, President Donald Trump recently called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ask him to quit targeting Russia’s oil refineries in retaliation for Russia’s aggressive war on his country. … The problem with Trump’s blame game is that it would be much easier for him to end his war with Iran to reduce pain at the pump for U.S. voters and the world than it would be for Ukraine to stop its air attacks on Russia, as long as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin fails to end his potential existential air attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian targets. And as winter nears, Putin is unlikely to stop the onslaught and pass up another chance to freeze Ukrainians as the weather turns colder.” (09/29/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/09/29/trump-high-fuel-prices/
- The Biden-era Title IX rule was already dead. Now it’s off the books.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler Coward“Yesterday, the Department of Education formally repealed the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations and restored the 2020 rule promulgated during the first Trump administration. The repeal does little to change the status quo; federal courts already vacated the unlawful 2024 rule nationwide and ED has enforced the 2020 regulation for over a year and a half now. But the move does remove the last source of ambiguity by making the Code of Federal Regulations match the rule that is actually in force. For civil liberties advocates, this development is welcome news.” (09/29/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/biden-era-title-ix-rule-was-already-dead-now-its-books
- The Three True Pillars Of American Democracy
Source: In These Times
by Hamilton Nolan“The fragility of U.S. democracy is not an accident. Nor is it an inevitable product of our unfinished national slog toward freedom or proof of the inability of regular people to wisely govern their own affairs. It is instead the consequence of direct attacks on the architecture that makes any democratic system possible. Our supporting pillars are being chipped away, and if that is not stopped, the house will collapse. As anyone who has been forced into emergency home repairs knows, you have to do the necessary structural work before you do the other stuff. Your pretty paint job and new tile will not matter much when your house falls down. Our political system is the same. Our pursuit of affordability is nice, but it will be cold comfort if we fade into authoritarianism.” (09/30/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/three-pillars-american-democracy-unions-public-education-free-press
- Five weeks to… “the most important election of your lifetime!” (Right…)
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Cartels, we are told in our high school (and college) history and social study classes, were outlawed by Congress way back in 1890. That is 136 years ago. But that obviously applies to our situation today. We have a governmental cartel, from DC right down to the tiniest village and special district governing board, the smallest county, and everything in between. It is a cartel that consists of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Two wings of the same vulture seeking out the next corpse to feast on.” (09/29/26)
- The Russian Radical Eludes Ayn Rand’s Critics
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra“Before Russian Radical, both critics and fans of Rand viewed her work strictly as a reaction against her Russian background. Russian Radical fundamentally shifted the interpretive matrix in its focus on those aspects of the Russian context that Rand absorbed. In fairness, then, it’s not as if Russian Radical’s theses were uniquely rejected or ignored by Rand’s critics; many, if not most of her admirers who saw Rand as sui generis, repudiated its theses as well. But in doing so, both the critics and the admirers have bracketed out some of the most sophisticated aspects of Rand’s thought. They are ill-equipped to understand Rand’s historical roots and dialectical sensibilities.” (09/29/26)
https://chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com/p/the-russian-radical-eludes-ayn-rands
- Making Healthcare More Expensive: “Bipartisanship” Strikes Again
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“[W]hat happens when every insurance company gets told that, by law, it must pay for this or that kind of genetic screening? In four words, everyone’s healthcare costs go up. … all of us get to pay for testing we may or may not ever want or need. In a free and open healthcare market, many insurers might cover these tests as part of their normal policies, or offer them as cheap add-on options to those most likely to want them. After all, testing for ovarian cancer is much cheaper than treating ovarian cancer. However, we live in the opposite of a free and open healthcare market.” (09/29/26)
- The Way the FDA and DEA Ban Drugs Is Unaccountable and Arbitrary
Source: Reason
by Ryan Curtis“A new report from the Government Accountability Office reveals that federal drug regulators do not have any clear policies or procedures for making scheduling decisions.” (09/29/26)
https://reason.com/2026/09/29/the-way-the-fda-and-dea-ban-drugs-is-unaccountable-and-arbitrary/
- People Eventually Get Tired of Eating Crap Sandwiches
Source: The Erick Erickson Show
by Erick-Woods Erickson“Both parties can count on their base. The most loyal Republicans will turn out for anyone with an R beside his name, and the most loyal Democrats will do the same for a D. No party wins with its base alone, though. Most Americans are not party loyalists, and that includes plenty of people who vote in Republican and Democratic primaries. … Those voters, along with the independents who only vote in general elections, decide elections. The parties keep insulting them. Both sides serve up a crap sandwich of a candidate, point across the aisle at the other side’s crap sandwich, and insist you have to eat theirs because the other one is worse. It is no longer a choice between the lesser of two evils. It is a choice between the evils of two lessers, and voters are getting tired of it.” (09/29/26)
https://ewerickson.substack.com/p/people-eventually-get-tired-of-eating
- ‘Market Humanism’ Renames an Old Economic Insight: Cooperation
Source: The Daily Economy
by Paul Schwennesen“A new book suggests a modern marketing label for classical liberal ideas: individuals acting in markets are engines of human flourishing.” (09/29/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/market-humanism-renames-an-old-economic-insight-cooperation/
- The AI revolution will go wherever there’s electricity, and China knows it
Source: Fox News Forum
by Robert C O’Brien“Despite the recent surge in AI doomerism, President Donald Trump is right to maintain his strong support for data centers. As he notes: ‘China couldn’t be happier’ if we were to turn our backs on these centers as a nation, which would effectively let the Chinese Communist Party win the AI race. As Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in July, ‘The country that leads in artificial intelligence in the coming years and decades ahead will be the global superpower’. Victory means capturing trillions of dollars in national wealth, securing an advantage in military technology and gaining enormous leverage in international affairs. An energy bottleneck could pose a serious risk to America’s AI lead. We need data centers to train and run top-tier AI models, and those centers need a lot of electricity.” (09/29/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ai-revolution-will-go-wherever-theres-electricity-china-knows-it
- Trump Deserves to Be Impeached
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Trump deserves impeachment for knowingly, deliberately, and intentionally committing high crimes or misdemeanors — (1) the waging of war without a congressional declaration of war and (2) ordering the killing of people on the high seas without according them due process of law. Why should presidents be given a pass to ignore that higher law that we the people have imposed on them, especially since they and other federal officials don’t give us a pass on the need to comply with the laws that they impose on us?” (09/29/26)
- In the national divorce, Democrats are getting the free-market
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz“For almost a century, Republicans claimed to be the party of economic growth. They accused Democrats of being the party of communists, socialists, and managed decline. That’s changing. As Republicans increasingly embrace economic interventionism, nationalization, and trade restrictions they are, increasingly, managing American decline. Meanwhile Democrats are picking up the mantle of economic growth, dynamism, and the American Dream.” (09/29/26)
https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/in-the-national-divorce-democrats
- The Swiss take a stand on neutrality
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Countries that try to stay impartial in international disputes are having a tough go these days. That’s also true for countries that serve as trusted interlocutors or simply provide safe venues for adversaries to talk. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine along with U.S. President Donald Trump’s high tariffs on friendly nations and his war with Iran have forced a reckoning of the meaning of diplomatic or military neutrality. On Sunday, the country that epitomized neutrality for centuries, Switzerland, added some clarity to its identity as an icon of evenhandedness. In a referendum, more than two-thirds of Swiss voters rejected a proposal to enshrine ‘perpetual and armed neutrality’ in the country’s constitution.” (09/28/26)
- Reflections on Simon Hankinson
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan“Debating immigration with an unusual gentleman.” (09/29/26)
- Censorship has no place in the people’s house
Source: Expression
by Jacob Gaba“President Trump’s attempt to ban of CNN, MS Now, and Politico is his most direct attack on free speech.” (09/29/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/censorship-has-no-place-in-the-peoples
- Mamdani’s brilliant economic Rx: More government jobs
Source: New York Post
by staff“Bringing his socialist economic chops to fix New York City’s stagnant-to-sluggish jobs growth, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new solution is to hire more government employees. His always-busy press office and Maoist ‘mass engagement’ cadres announced Monday a new Jobs NYC Center, a ‘hub connecting New Yorkers to careers in public service’. Citywide unemployment as of August was 4.8%, about a fifth higher than the national average of 4.1%. Mamdani’s hate-the-rich, capitalism bad rhetoric hasn’t helped: Finance — which provides the tax revenue to fuel Gotham’s lavish social spending — has been reducing jobs in the city for long decades; these days job growth in financial services comes almost exclusively in lower-tax, business-friendly cities and states. In the last year, the city added a measly 27,600 jobs to its private-sector workforce of 4.2 million — nearly all of them home-health aide work, which is mostly funded by Medicaid.” (09/29/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/09/29/opinion/mamdanis-brilliant-economic-rx-more-government-jobs/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/30/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“End Of An Era: US Finally (Sort-Of) Out Of Iraq.” (09/30/26)
- Reasonably Optimistic, 09/30/26
Source: Washington Post
“Is AI taking Gen Z’s jobs? It’s not that simple.” (09/30/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/is-ai-taking-gen-zs-jobs-its-not-that-simple/
- Play The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 09/30/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Scientific Republic | Interview: Tony Mills.” (09/30/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/the-scientific-republic-interview-tony-mills/
- Sal and Mark, episode 21
Source: Free Talk Live
“Sal the Agorist is back with Jack sitting in for Mark Edge. First up is Alan Orwick, co-founder of Quai Network, who talks about what the team has been working on, including Qi, a coin tied to energy that’s meant to be spent like cash.” (09/30/26)
- Nonzero, 09/29/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Dario’s China Syndrome | Robert Wright & Paul Triolo.” (09/29/26)
- Capital Record, episode 325
Source: National Review
“Being Trained to Be an Entrepreneur… by the Government??” (09/30/26)
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/29/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Completes Withdrawal From Iraq Bases, Okinawa Town Protests US Typhon Deployment, and More.” (09/29/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 493
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Holden Ferguson on life on an intolerant ‘woke’ campus.” (09/29/26)
https://rumble.com/v7g62ie-ff-493-holden-ferguson-on-life-on-an-intolerant-woke-campus.html
- Why America’s Revolution Didn’t Become France’s
Source: Free the People
“Economist and historian Lawrence W. (‘Larry’) Reed, President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, discusses his book Born of Ideas: How Principles, Faith, and Courage Forged America, where he traces the founding of America from the Mayflower Compact in 1620 through the Bill of Rights.” (09/29/26)
- Zooming In, 09/29/26
Source: The UnPopulist
“Abolish ICE Before Its Abusive Tactics Spread to Other Law Enforcement: A Conversation With Radley Balko.” (09/29/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/abolish-ice-before-its-abusive-tactics
- Rising, 09/29/26
Source: The Hill
“SNL mocks Tucker Carlson with outdated impression.” (09/29/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/6101140-rising-september-29-2026/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 09/29/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Why Is The Pentagon Hiding US Iran War Casualties?” (09/29/26)
- Trump Watch, 09/29/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Dismantle the U.S. Empire.” (09/29/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 09/29/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Erupts in Wild Panic as GOP Midterm Leaks Grow Urgent: ‘Wipeout.'” (09/29/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/215952/trump-erupts-wild-panic-gop-midterm-leaks-grow-urgent-wipeout
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 09/29/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly conversation. We talk about the upcoming midterms and explore other issues impacting our ability to live freely. It’s an exciting time to be a free-thinking individual, to put it mildly.” (09/29/26)
- Receipts, 09/29/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s War With Canada Has Officially Lost the Plot (w/ Sam Stein).” (09/29/26)
- The Good Fight, 09/29/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Frank Furedi on the Case for Populism.” (09/29/26)
- Film, Literature and the New World Order, 09/29/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“In The Conversation—the 1974 conspiracy thriller/psychodrama from writer/director Francis Ford Coppola—we follow the story of Harry Caul, the greatest surveillance technician in the world.” (09/29/26)
- Radio Atlantic, 09/29/26
Source: The Atlantic
“Republican Candidates Are Running From Trump. Will It Work?” (09/29/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/09/ra-midterm-mess/688810
- The Inner Life of Liberalism, episode 6
Source: The Inner Life of Liberalism
“Against the Politics of Cruelty — with Alan Elrod.” (09/28/26)